Chapelo

Yes, hello, artist here. You think my explanation of my work is a stretch? Again, column inches... The piece has layers of meaning including aging/inadequate infrastructure being ignored while the city focused on courting an ever increasing influx of tourism, efforts to turn the city into a giant theme park, catering solely to the interests of tourists while city services failed to meet the needs of residents, pricing artists out of the downtown loft spaces they had renovated so developers could turn them into $500k condos, etc. How much time do you have? San Diego did host the GOP convention in 1996 and covered up my mural that spanned a corner at Fifth and Broadway because it contained famous quotations on the subject of peace and planners feared that art about peace might offend Republican sensibilities. Has San Diego grown up, or is it still sucking up? At the optimistic age of 25 I was hoping that growth would beget cultural/civic maturity.

SurfPuppy619, you appear to have forgotten that we achieved one of the strongest economies in history during the Clinton administration, then Bush drove us over the cliff due to his failure to learn the fundamentals of economics while he was in college.

Another fact that far too many failed to learn in Econ 1 is that capitalism is the absolute best way to create wealth for the entire nation, but capitalists are human and too many try to maximize their greed regardless of destructive consequences to capitalism itself.

Don was absolutely correct to focus on "American corporations, by shipping jobs overseas to low- and slave-wage nations, destroyed their own markets -- the middle class."

SurfPup: Papa Doug doesn't want skeptics like you reading his newspapers. His target market consists of those naifs who believe in the beauty of the way and the goodness of the wayfarers -- those who swallow his version of the news and believe it. He said as much when he bought the U-T, making it clear he viewed it as a propaganda organ, not a newspaper. Best, Don Bauder

Jane, you have one duty as a planning board member and that is to protect the residents of OB...RV's, boats, trailers, abandoned vehicles, expired plates do not belong on the streets. Let Clairemont worry about Clairemont! Drive down the streets of OB and see they are littered with things for which the owners need to rent space in public storage units! In addition, the old Dominos location on Voltaire has become an eyesore with storage of RV's, boats, vehicles etc. which are probably leaking fluids and polluting this property. Who allowed a permit for this type of operation in our village on the main street?

Jane, you worry me! I hope these loosers park their RV's in front of your house and decrease your property values!

Wacko thinking goes on in OB!!!!!!!!!!

PS there are laws for parking such items in your driveway....get educated! RV owners need to rent a storage unit and keep their home on wheels off our city streets and not take up parking for people that live in the area and pay taxes. Homeless can go park at Qualcomm.

The demo'd properties appear to be well-maintained rentals that fit within the character of the community. The houses that replaced them are massively overbuilt for the size of the lot and further shield the ocean from public view. I applaud Mayor Filner for his stand against the proliferation of McMansions in the beach areas. Filner is a man of courage for his willingness to enforce the building codes and zoning laws as they are written. The city should exercise its power of eminent domain and buy the other two McMansions and tear them down as they are out of scale for the community and should never have been built.

The statistics are nothing surprising. If they're supposed to elicit sympathy, they don't work on me. Living in San Diego is not a right, it is a privilege, either earned, or bequeathed. Over the years I have seen many a newcomer decide what they could sacrifice (high wage, new car, big house, living alone, ect.) to reside here. I can claim all of them. I almost always had a roommate in San Diego (it's now my wife). I own two motorcycles, but both are over 30 years old. My regular vehicle is a company truck. I'm nearing retirement age, and I still have a long term mortgage. I absolutely guarantee if I lived elsewhere I'd own a larger house (paid off), drive a newer car, have a larger 401K, and maybe even a have few toys. It's a mobile worldwide economy. Jobs are available, just not always here. I had to move out of San Diego twice now, to earn the privilege, and develop the skills, to move back here as a viable employee in this economy. Unless Mommy and Daddy can buy you that beachside condo, (or bankroll a startup business, or get you into the ground floor at that company) you'd best be mobile to move up. Life is not fair. Get moving.

maryellen1952: There is absolutely no question: governments in the Bay Area are far more citizen-oriented. A couple of years ago, I wrote a column showing how, generally, San Francisco preserved the Presidio for use of its citizenry. San Diego gave the Navy Training Center away to McMillin Cos., which had donated more to the local councilmembers. The old NTC now consists mainly of homes on which McMillin made a mint. The amount of historical preservation was minimal compared with the Presidio. Similarly, the Bay Area has miles and miles of green space for citizen use. San Diego County has inadequate green space. Best, Don Bauder

One thing not mentioned is that the Bay area is by far much more liberal and progressive than the San Diego area will ever be. it's like they are two separate states...San Diego has one of the highest # of racial hate groups in the state so that speaks for the conservatism right here in your backyard.

You must be deluded. The ratty streets in the mainly commercial urban outlying areas are as ratty as ever, unless you are distracted by colorful BID banners, expensive designer trash cans and benches and bike racks (replacing or competing with the simple, low-cost City ones), hipster bars (yes, some sell hip food, but w/o alcohol they wouldn't make it), and Redevelopment/Housing commission-subsided multiunit built-to-the-curb/parking garage monster projects. Those are all essentially built with tax/private assessment monies imposed on business and property owners, locally and statewide. The nonprofit managers/owners/builders making the deals and the profits are insiders with the ULI-MainStreet-labor crowd, and sit on every board they can get on. City departments in charge of infrastructure planning and maintenance have been stripped of their real functions and are subservient to the private circles of boards and advisors. (One example: the recent demand of the former Redev board, now Civic San Diego, to be given control of permit issuance and compliance.)

The goal of the architect/developer/builder/business association groups is to turn the "outlying" areas into continuations of the dense core area downtown. Infill/densification has been the rallying call for the ULI crowd since the beginning of the real estate boom-scam-bust era in East Village, Barrio Logan, Golden Hill, City Heights, North Park, South Park, Hillcrest, University Heights, Grantville, and Ken-Tal. They never stopped during the recession, but just rebranded their goals (green, eco-friendly, walkable,buy local, no-free-parking, pro-bicycle, blah blah blah) and fine-tuned their Land Use jargon to make it seem like packing low-density-zoned neighborhoods with "granny flats" was right out of Leave It to Beaver-land and Happy Days, where everyone walks and ride bikes to nearby (high-priced) "small" businesses and never need leave their neighborhoods. Over the years the players whose careers depend on building, building, building have grabbed generous subsidies to throw in a few so-called low-income units in order to get fabulous deals on loans and exemptions.

Me, I guess you are getting such a thrill at at Bob's misfortunes, your statement is very childish and kinda bizarre. You obviously do not see the big picture, maybe you fast-food junkies are the ones that contributed to Bobs demise. I'd love to see a pic of your belly, just for fun :)

Just goes to show the level of vindictiveness in the Toad that he kicks at the mayor even now and blames the true mayor for doing the right thing while at the same time does exactly the wrong thing. The reign of the Terrible Toad begins. He won't care about his constituents. He won't care about the city. He obviously didn't care about the people he fired first thing. He will only care about the puny power he can wield, which is to destroy this beautiful place we call home. I say puny because in the end no matter what he does he can never be loved or admired like Bob Filner. And that's his pathology, what's really eating the Toad.

Ponzi: Good points. More Chargers games will be blacked out this year for lack of fans -- I should say "fannies" -- in the seats. Padres attendance is hardly robust. So where is the market for NBA or NHL teams? There is too much else to do in San Diego, and ticket prices are too high. Also, there aren't enough large companies to buy blocks of tickets. Best, Don Bauder

sdraoul: Objective economists-- those not tied to the teams or the league -- almost unanimously conclude that subsidized stadiums do not stimulate an economy and are just about the worst way to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars taxpayers put into stadiums. The team owners -- in the NFL, the majority are billionaires -- should finance new stadiums. The Spanos family has more than $1 billion. Best, Don Bauder

There's not much interest in sports in San Diego. No more than 15,000 fans are actually willing to purchase a ticket for any given Padres or Chargers game. Most of the tickets sold are purchased in bulk by businesses and distributed gratis to favored customers. For example, plumbing wholesalers distribute free tickets to plumbers who spend a lot to keep them from going to the Home Depot. Few sports enthusiasts are willing to purchase tickets with their own funds, but will attend games if the tickets are free.

We must keep our eyes on the other cards in the game of three card monte that is StadiumCon. The Spanos family wants to develop the land under the present Stadium. The fact it is a toxic waste site seems to be ignored, but developed it might get a price that would pay for StadiumCon, at least that's what was suggested in one of the earlier proposals. What is done with the Stadium site should be discussed along with the proposed downtown atrocity, there is a Mission Valley atrocity planned as well.

Well said, Shirley. Dana is clearly uninformed herself. Even worse, she is obviously extemely selfish with an incredible sense of entitlement! The beach is NOT yours! The cove, casa beach & the ocean are ALL the sea lion & seals' natural habitat. You, Dana are selfish to demand that the cove be your personal swimming area. Go find a pool.. You don't deserve to share the cove with the sea lions. Sad how many humans have no respect & consideration for marines mammals

p.s.. The crazy "activists" you mention are animal lovers that relentlessly try to help the seals that have called casa beach their home for MANY years. These seals & their newborn pups endure harassment daily.. I've witnessed this myself. I live 1 block away. We are so fortunate to have the harbor seals. The vast majority of people & children love the seals. You are part of the small group of selfish people that just can't share 2 small beaches in la Jolla. Shame on you!